The present invention relates to a moving picture communication system, a communications method, a telephone device and a moving picture data processor.
Examples of the present invention relate to a device for providing video related features or video phone features to an Internet Protocol (IP) enabled voice telephone. In particular, the telephone may provide the usual voice-only telephony features (for example call set-up, voice media capture encoding and transport) without the presence of the device and the device may be incapable of connection to a voice and video network without the aid of the call set-up and media transport facilities of the telephone. Examples described include a system for providing video related features to an IP enabled telephony device using a hardware video adjunct and the video adjunct is housed in a separate housing to the telephone device. Examples of the present invention are used in a fixed line telecommunications system and particularly for desk-top applications for large organisations or enterprises, such as large companies or government departments, with 5,000 or more people.
There are three general types of known systems for providing fixed line video telephony for large organisations. These include: (1) “all-in-one” personal videoconferencing telephones, such as the Tandberg T150; (2) videoconferencing room systems, such as the Tandberg Telepresence T3; and (3) software plug-ins for general-purpose computers connected to voice-only telephones, such as the Cisco VT Advantage. These are all described, in turn, below.
An example “all-in-one” personal videoconferencing telephone 10 or video IP telephone is shown in FIG. 1. It is a standalone video telephone where the video and audio components are held within the same device sharing the same screen for video display and user interface. In appearance, the telephone is similar to a normal desktop telephone for voice-only calls. It includes a base unit 12 having a keypad 14 for entering phone numbers and for activating other features of the telephone, such as call transfer. Connected to the base unit is a handset 16 with a speaker and microphone. The base unit also has a screen 18 for displaying information, such as the number being dialled on the keypad. When used for videoconferencing, the screen displays an image of the person being called. Typically, the screen has a small area which is shared between the videoconferencing display function and the user interface. The base unit has a video camera 20 for taking video images of the person using the videoconferencing telephone to make a video call. The videoconferencing telephone of FIG. 1 is connected to a network 22 that carries call set-up, voice and video traffic. The small screen is typically too small for multi-party videoconferences and the user-interface is cluttered because of needing elements both for basic voice-call control as well as additional user interface elements to control a video call. Furthermore, as the telephone is usually positioned on a desk-top, the positioning of the camera on the base unit limits the angle at which video can be taken. Generally, this means that video is taken looking upwardly at the person on the telephone, which leads to an unflattering “up-the-nose” video image.
The telephone 10 of this arrangement requires sufficient power to compress video. For high definition video, in particular, this requires high-power processors, which cannot be adequately powered using power-over-Ethernet. Therefore, telephones of this type are powered from the mains and are inoperable both for voice and video calls during a power cut unless an uninterruptable power supply is used.
Another effect of the high power required to compress video (and high definition video in particular) is high heat dissipation. A small surface area desktop-telephone type device such as this is not very effective at dissipating heat. A fan may be required to aid heat dissipation and these are a source of noise.
The telephone may include a video output (not shown), such as a high definition media interface (HDMI) output, for outputting uncompressed video data to display on a separate monitor connected to the output.
An example videoconferencing room system 28 is illustrated in FIG. 2. It is linked with a voice-only IP telephone 38. They are linked together by call-control components within a network to provide a limited level of integration. The videoconferencing room includes a large, typically wall-mounted, monitor 30 and a video camera 32 both connected to a control unit 34. The control unit is connected to the network 22 that carries call set-up, voice and video traffic. The videoconferencing room system has a remote control user interface 36 (similar to a television remote control) or a keypad on a meeting room desk. This is an unfamiliar user interface for making telephone calls to an average user. In this example, to improve the user experience, a regular IP telephone 38 for making voice-only calls is provided in the videoconferencing room. A voice-only call may be made on the regular IP telephone and then that call may be handed over to the videoconferencing room system. However, this leads to ambiguity and thus confusion about subsequently controlling the call. For example, whether the call is under the control of the telephone or the videoconferencing room system, how to make changes to the call, such as adding participants, or which device's user interface should be used.
FIG. 3 illustrates a video telephony system 50 that uses software on a general purpose computer 52 to provide videoconferencing facilities to a regular IP telephone 53 to which the computer is attached. The general purpose computer provides limited video functionality to the telephone at the expense of the computer's facilities for other applications. Connected to the computer are a display 54, a video camera or webcam 56 and a keyboard 58. The computer is connect to the IP telephone by a connection 60 that provides general network traffic, webcam device control and video media traffic. The IP telephone is connected to the network 22 by connection 62 that carries general network traffic as well as call set-up, video and voice media traffic.
With this arrangement, a call is made on the telephone 53 and if videoconferencing is possible by both parties to the call, then the computer 52 is instructed by the telephone to start the webcam 56 and the display 54, and to compress and decompress video for videoconference call.
This is a complex solution as it requires that the computer has certain minimum specification and software and/or operating system compatibility constraints. These constraints can cause conflict between the needs of the staff deploying general applications on the computer and the needs of the staff deploying telephony. It also takes up processing resources of the computer for the duration of the videoconference. Also, the non-real-time nature of general-purpose operating systems tends to make the performance of these hybrid systems worse than the dedicated devices described above.
However, this arrangement provides a partial solution to the user interface problem of the videoconferencing room system 28 of FIG. 2 as prospective users are generally familiar with using computers.